What is your daily sword ...

[pgsmith]

Just a bit of curiosity on my part, but what sword do you use for your regular practice. Nihonto? Shinken from another country? Iaito from Japan?

My daily sword for the last few years was a shinken made in Cambodia by Citadel. It needs a new handle though, so I switched just last week to an aluminum blade iaito by Swordstore.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Paul, my daily sword for MJER is a steel iaito from Tozando, fairly customized. My sword for SMR jodo, however, is a Muromachi Nihonto. Sensei requires all students to use Nihonto, & we also train on the side of a mountain, rain or shine, although we do put our Nihonto away if it starts to rain.

Ken

[Kendoguy9]

I have a Hanwei "Shinto katana" with a Meiji era cast iron tsuba to improve the balance. I think I am going to start using a Bitchu no Kami Tachibana Yasuhiro (2nd or 3rd gen. with kiku on the nakago) wakizashi for kodachi stuff. The blade has a nasty hagiri from the ha to the shinogiji. The sword would have been very nice if not for that. I think the break is an old one, maybe from some sort of contact since there is a slight bend that starts at the area where the crack is. I'm only going to use it for kata and there won't be any contact or cutting with it so I figure why not? It isn't worth much anymore and the shape is good for Jikishinkage-ryu. My biggest concern is getting the tsuka rewarpped. It is in semi-gunto koshirae. The tsuka has rattan wrap that has come loose.

My main tool really is the bokuto though. I spend most of my time studying the Hojo-no-kata these days.

[Kendoguy9]

My sword for SMR jodo, however, is a Muromachi Nihonto.

I hope you aren't doing tachiotoshi with the jo to that sword! Maybe that is how my wakizashi got the hagiri? A good solid whack from a jodoka!?! I am assuming you are using it for Shinto-ryu kenjutsu?

[Ookami7]

Mine is a modern shinken I got here in Japan from a friend of my Sensei. Slightly longer then standard blade.
Perfect balance, changed menuki on it to full moon/ crescent moon. Some time might upgrade tsuba and other fittings.
Also might spring for leather on tsuka again! Had it on there originally, but I'm a poor English teacher lol!

[Guy Buyens]

In Hontai Yoshin Ryu, the kumitachi in bojutsu are usually trained with bokuto, usual practice of HYR iaijutsu is performed with an iaito but for some kata (kodachi and kumidachi) at some stage, training with a shinken becomes necessary.

I have a daisho (sho-to and a dai-to), signature: NANKI RYUJIN SADASHIGE (SOSYU-DEN). In fact they are gendai-to (traditional Japanese swords but recently made) according the specs I wanted (in fact according the advice of our soke): DAI: 2 shaku 7 bun 0 bu (81.8 cm) with sori 8 bu (2.4 cm); SHO: 1 shaku 5 bun 0 bu (45.45 cm) with sori 3.5 bu (1.06 cm).

Apart from HYR, I am also practicing OHIR, but with a bokuto (in OHIR, at a more advanced stage, habiki are sometimes used).

[Black and Blue]

I use a Bizen Odachi Bokken and my katana for iai is a Kunisada
Phil Scudieri
ZNSBR/Seibukan Dojo Kyoto
http//:www.Delawarebudokan.Net

[Ken-Hawaii]

I am assuming you are using it for Shinto-ryu kenjutsu?

That's right, Chris. I don't know if Chambers-Sensei's Shinto-Ryu DVD has made it out to your SMR sensei by now, but if not, expect it soon. All other SMR training is with bokken & kodachi, of course.

Ken

[Kendoguy9]

That's sort of what I thought Ken. I was a little worried though ;)

I haven't seen Hall sensei in a while (work has kept me from making it down to his dojo) but I'm going to try to have lunch with him soon. I will ask about it. I think Shinto-ryu when done right is a pretty solid kenjutsu ryu. I feel like a lot of folks just train in it to use it as jo fodder (thanks Nathan for that, BTW). It sounds like your group studies it very seriously with nihonto and all.

[pgsmith]

I have a daisho (sho-to and a dai-to), signature: NANKI RYUJIN SADASHIGE (SOSYU-DEN). In fact they are gendai-to (traditional Japanese swords but recently made) according the specs I wanted (in fact according the advice of our soke): DAI: 2 shaku 7 bun 0 bu (81.8 cm) with sori 8 bu (2.4 cm); SHO: 1 shaku 5 bun 0 bu (45.45 cm) with sori 3.5 bu (1.06 cm).

Hey Guy,
2.7 is quite a long sword! Does HYR advocate long swords, or are you exceptionally tall? The Sekiguchi ryu that I used to practice used quite long swords.

[Ken-Hawaii]

It sounds like your group studies it very seriously with nihonto and all.

Well, it's certainly sharpened up my jo techniques, especially when uchidachi has also been training in Shinto-Ryu! Even with bokken, things are a lot more "real." Hosomichi in 5 seconds? :eek:

Ken

[Guy Buyens]

2.7 is quite a long sword! Does HYR advocate long swords, or are you exceptionally tall?

I am not short (1.86m), nevertheless even then, hikite has not to be neglected during nukitsuke.

HYR doesn’t claim whatsoever, in fact in most kata (whether it is against chobo, hanbo, kodachi or any form of tachi dori) the sword is the uchikata side.

I got my specs fixed during a conversation between our soke and Masumoto Takamasa (Enshin-ryu Iai Suemonogiri Kenpo) in Tokyo at the party of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai (32th event in 2009). We were lucky to participate in the enbu and at the party I mentioned my order. Both men discussed it and wrote the specs on a piece of paper. So who was I to question them. I ordered my sword the next week and picked it up one year later when it was finished.
By the way, in the Nippon Budokan, I had to perform the kodachi kata in the uchidachi role using a shorter shinken (for my size) that I received for the occasion from our soke, who is certainly not tall compared to me. In contrast the kodachi he gave us was long and I have to admit that doing kata with shinken in an enbu can be stressful if the length of the blade is different from what has been trained.

[Carl Long]

Uhmmm... To answer Paul Smiths question from a non-biased point of view... "Guy is TALL." Don't let him give you the run around Paul. He takes great joy in downplaying his size. :)

[Meitetsu]

They have a bunch of three foot long metal bars that the track and field team hold when they do lunges, they vary from 1-3 inches in diameter and i use those for suburi practice. The bigger they get the harder they are to stop....

[Steven Wood]

Bugei Dragonfly katana 50% and bokuto with saya 50% for iai.

Ken- Does your sensei require actual nihonto or just shinken?

[Ken-Hawaii]

Specifically Nihonto, Steven. Chambers-Sensei wants us to train as close to reality as possible, which is why we also train on the side of a mountain, rain or shine. Today it was lots of shine, last week, exactly the opposite.

We do put our Nihonto away when it starts to rain, I'll admit, as getting a polish every few months isn't exactly in our budgets.

Ken

[Aden]

Nosyu iaito, Sakuraya SMR bokken, no name Taiwanese shinai....

[hyaku]

They have a bunch of three foot long metal bars that the track and field team hold when they do lunges, they vary from 1-3 inches in diameter and i use those for suburi practice. The bigger they get the harder they are to stop.... Do you mean harder to stop the attack or the weilder having difficulty in stopping the blade?

[Meitetsu]

Do you mean harder to stop the attack or the weilder having difficulty in stopping the blade?
As in stopping it as to not over-swing.

[Maro]

I use an 11 Year old Tozando Iaito with more chips than Walkers for Kumitachi

All kata and tameshigiri I use an Okamoto Shinken from Gifu, made for me in 2010